Monday, 23 April 2012

India, Japan to talk on cooperation in Asia-Pacific

The Shinmaywa US-2 amphibious aircraft, which Japan wants to sell India. Japan's constitution bans the sale of military equipment, but this aircraft would be sold under the rubric of humanitarian relief and search and rescue

By Ajai Shukla

Business Standard, 23rd Apr 12

This Monday, and then again on Monday the
30th, Japanese and Indian officials will meet to impart momentum to
what is arguably New Delhi’s most important partnership in Asia, but one that
has consistently underperformed.

These meetings seek to take forward a
relationship that has the economic and military weight to balance China, and
which enjoys broad political acceptance within both countries. For decades, the
two sides remained aloof, first due to the Cold War, and then because of
Japan’s reflexive opposition to India’s nuclear quest. In 2000, however, with
China rising, the two established a “Global Partnership” and upgraded that to a
“Strategic and Global Partnership” during Prime Minister Manmohan Singh’s path
breaking meetings in 2006 with his Japanese counterpart, Shinzo Abe.

On
Monday, Tokyo will host the second India-Japan-US trilateral dialogue, the
first such meeting after Washington announced its strategic shift to the
Asia-Pacific in Jan 12. Officials say the participants will share their
perceptions on China; discuss the regional security architecture, particularly
maritime security; and the prospects for co-operating in keeping open sea lanes
of communications in the face of Chinese claims.

Officials
say they will also discuss ways of cooperating in the East Asia Summit, an
increasingly powerful regional body. In 2005, Japan had lobbied successfully
for including India in the East Asia Summit. Last year, the US (and Russia)
also joined the summit for the first time.

Meanwhile,
defence is emerging as an important area of India-Japan cooperation, with Tokyo
exploring ways of working around a pacifist constitution, Article 9 of which
prohibits Japan from maintaining a military and for settling disputes through
force. Japan’s military exists as a “self defence force (SDF)”, of which
soldiers, sailors and airmen are “members.” But Tokyo felt vulnerable after
2005, when Beijing was suspected of engineering violent anti-Japan riots across
China, to signal its disapproval of any move to grant Japan permanent
membership in the UN Security Council.

“That
convinced Tokyo that China actively harboured a strong historical grievance.
There are three drivers of Tokyo’s decisive turn towards New Delhi: India’s
economic rise; India’s growing ties with the US; and Japan’s fear of a rising
China,” says Hemant Kumar Singh, formerly India’s ambassador to Japan and now a
professor with ICRIER.

With
Japan’s defence spending traditionally capped at 1% of its GDP (it is still
more than India’s defence budget) India is emerging as a key partner for Tokyo.
The two countries signed a “Joint Declaration on Security Cooperation” in 2008
and there are regular meetings and joint exercises between the two militaries.
With Tokyo realizing that its small military does not buy enough equipment to
justify the development of expensive defence systems, Japan is formulating
guidelines for joint collaboration in defence technologies, a major shift given
its sensitivities.

“India
could benefit enormously from defence technology cooperation with Japan,”
acknowledge MoD sources. “But, so far, we have not started thinking about what
we could cooperate on.”

What
could be on the cards, though, is India’s first-ever aircraft procurement from
Japan. The Indian Navy is evaluating the Shinmaywa US-2 amphibious aircraft; a
short take-off and landing (STOL) amphibious aircraft that can take off from
either land or from water with 18 tonnes of load. Its range of 4,700 kilometres
reaches across vast tracts of ocean, performing multiple tasks: humanitarian
aid, disaster relief, search and rescue, as well as military logistical
activities.

The
second meeting, on 30th April in New Delhi, is a “Ministerial Level
Economic Dialogue.” Conceived in 2010, during the PM’s visit to Japan, this
brings together cabinet ministers from both sides who holding economic
portfolios, such as finance, commerce, industry, infrastructure and
environment, in order to impart “strategic and long-term policy orientation to
their bilateral economic engagement… and to coordinate economic issues of
cross-cutting nature, including infrastructure development and financing.”

This
ministerial dialogue complements the India-Japan Comprehensive Economic Partnership
Agreement (CEPA), which came into force last August.

On the
anvil are the Western Dedicated Freight Corridor; the Delhi-Mumbai Industrial
Corridor (DMIC); cooperation in clean energy initiatives, particularly the
Regional Energy Efficiency Centre (REEC).

11 comments:

Col. Shukla - I think FDI's from the Japanese like what they did for China would make a bigger difference to our comprehensive strength as a nation. Hopefully, there are signs of increasing FDI from the Japanese.. apart from these a/c's..

I sincerely hope and wish Japan doesn't loose patience with Indians and keeps up with their steadfast support of India. In the long run, Indians will mature and their investments in India will bear good fruits. What Indians need is Japan's support in industrial infrastructure projects. The best thing the Japanese can do is at individual and state level, by having more people exchanges. For a chance for Indians to better understand Japan and for Japanese to better understand India's inhibiting factors.

Indian thread of Buddhism played a magic for long time with China and could be broken by them only when they turned into the Red Dragon and started speaking 'Hindi Chini Bhai Bhai'.

On the other hand, Japan does not have any borders with India and they supposedly understand within their own hearts that India does really needs nukes against the likes of Pak and the Red Dragon. So I feel that India and Japan should suitably upgrade their mutual relations.

about changing times...yes, Broadsword, you are right..Changing time was exemplified by Gen Vaidya..

That a succession plan is required to be engineered even at the cost of rendering the ethos and moral system of the Forces useless, is the latest change, we have witnessed.

You are aiming and desiring at a very narrow perspective of only Armour Corps having birth right to merit and birthright to be generals. That does not solve the issue. If all the Army Chiefs are from Armoured Corps then who is to be the Chief?

Obviously, from your Regiment ! If not, then your squadron type. You are aiming at such changes.